


zoos and new friendships

by laurenjauregui



Series: you make me sick (for being so perfect) // adoption [3]
Category: Fifth Harmony (Band)
Genre: F/F, part 3 of adoption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-25 01:44:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12025473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurenjauregui/pseuds/laurenjauregui
Summary: Adoption part three. Clara takes Lauren to the zoo, and she makes a new friend.





	zoos and new friendships

“Lauren, sweetie, wake up.”

Lauren’s eyes blink open, still not at all used to the gentle wake up calls. Even though she’s been living with the Jaureguis for a few months, she expects to be dragged out of bed by her hair, not gently woken up by Clara’s voice. It’s so surreal to her.

When Lauren sits up, Clara sends her a small smile. “Morning, honey. We’ve got a big day ahead, so you’ll need to get dressed straight away.”

Lauren nods, and clambers out of bed, rocking on her heels when Clara passes her some clothes to wear. She quickly strips out of her pyjamas, and gets dressed, Clara helping her with her socks, because Lauren finds them tricky to put on.

She holds Clara’s hand to walk to the kitchen, and her mami gets her a bowl of Cheerios, without milk on, just how Lauren likes them. She sits down at the table to eat, and Clara sits with her, watching cartoons with her and pointing things out to make Lauren laugh.

When Lauren finishes her cereal, she holds the bowl out. “Mami. Mami, done.”

Clara smiles and kisses the top of her head. “You’re so good. I’ll take this into the kitchen, you wait here.”

Clara disappears into the kitchen, and Lauren occupies herself with the TV. When her mami doesn’t come back for a while, Lauren gets a little nervous, but she’d told her to stay on the couch, so she has to stay there, or she might get hit.

(She knows that Clara and Mike have said they won’t hit her, but she doesn’t know if that’s true or not, since she hasn’t been in trouble yet.)

When Clara finally comes back into the room, she holds out a _Lion King_ backpack, and Lauren beams. “’ine?”

“Yes, this is for you,” Clara smiles, “We’re going out today, and this backpack has some snacks for you, as well as a few things I put in for precaution, in case you accidentally wander off.”

Lauren blinks, and Clara kneels down in front of her and holds out a laminated sheet of paper. “If you get lost, I need you to go to someone who works at… at the place we’re going to, and give them this. It has your name, my phone number on it, and your papi’s, in case they can’t reach me. He’s at work, but if you get lost, he can come and get you.”

Lauren nods as Clara tucks the paper back into the bag. “Where go?”

Clara smiles. “That’s a special surprise for you.”

“’kay,” Lauren answers, and hops off the couch when Clara tells her to. Clara helps her get her shoes on, and when she leads her out to the car, Lauren hesitates. The last time she was in that, was when they brought her home from the orphanage. Maybe Clara is taking her back there? “No.”

Clara squeezes Lauren’s hand. “It’s okay, Lauren. We have to go in the car, for your surprise.”

“No leave,” Lauren tries to tell her, “no- no or’nage.”

Clara looks down at her sadly, and kneels in front of her, trying to make eye contact. Lauren stares at her feet. “Lauren, you’re not going back to the orphanage. Ever. You’re staying with me. We’re going in the car, to go for a nice day out, and then we’ll come back here. I promise.”

“I ‘tay?” Lauren asks. “’tay mami?”

“Yes, you’re staying forever,” Clara assures her, “can I get you in your car seat?”

After a few moments of hesitation, Lauren nods. She trusts Clara, and she really hopes she’s right in doing that, because she wants to go somewhere nice.

Clara buckles her into the booster seat in the back, and walks around to the driver’s side. When she starts the car, she puts a disk into the CD player, and when the music starts, Lauren’s jaw drops, because it’s music from _The Lion King_.

“Mami!” Lauren excitedly announces, pointing to the stereo. “ _Hakuna matata!”_

Clara smiles. “I know. I thought you’d like to listen to it on the way.”

Lauren giggles, and tries her best to sing along to the music, mostly just making noises when it comes to the words she doesn’t know. “Me sing.”

“You’re such a good singer, Lauren,” Clara tells her, and Lauren squeals happily and claps her hands three times. “Maybe when you grow up, you can be a singer.”

Lauren hums. “’es. Me sing.”

Lauren sings along to the music for the whole car journey, and is excited to do that on the way back home. When Clara gets her out of the car, and she realises where they are, she starts crying, but they’re happy tears.

“’oo?” Lauren points over at the entrance, “lions?”

“Yeah, they have lions,” Clara smiles at her, “that’s why I said this is a special day out, because you get to meet the lions.”

Lauren stares up at Clara with wide eyes, before she looks back over to the entrance. “’eally?”

“Really,” Clara confirms. “Come on. Let’s go buy our tickets.”

A completely starstruck Lauren lets Clara lead her over to the ticket booth. She can’t believe she’s at the _zoo_! She’s never been before, and when she asked the bad people if they’d take her, she didn’t get any meals for three days, so she wasn’t going to ask Clara and Mike, in case she got in trouble.

When Clara buys the tickets, and hands Lauren hers, the little girl gasps at the picture of the lion on it. “’ook! Lions!”

“You’ll get to see the real ones in a few minutes,” Clara tells her, and Lauren flaps her hands happily. “Let’s find the enclosure.”

Lauren squeals, and holds out her arms. “Uppie!”

Clara picks her up, happy that Lauren feels comfortable enough to ask her that, and her daughter curls into her, giggling. “It says the lions are just through here. Are you excited?”

“’es!” Lauren beams, “’cited!”

They’re halfway through the zoo – the big cats are in an area towards the back of the zoo, according to the map – when they hear a loud, “Lolo!”

For a moment, Lauren is frightened, because what if it’s someone bad? But when she looks down, still safe in her mami’s arms, she flaps her hands happily. “’amz!”

“Hi, Lolo!” Camila waves, and Lauren wriggles to get down. Clara sets her down, and Lauren gives her a clumsy kiss hello. “I missed your kisses, I haven’t seen you for three whole days!”

“’es, I miss,” Lauren answers, kissing Camila again and sending her a bashful smile. “’allo.”

“Camila! Don’t run away like that,” A woman Lauren doesn’t recognise catches up to Camila and chastises her. She has another little girl with her, who is frowning at Lauren in confusion. “Who’s this?”

“Oh, this is Lauren, she’s my girlfriend,” Camila proudly announces, holding Lauren’s hand gently. “Lolo, this is Dinah, she’s my best friend from school, and her mommy. DJ, this is Lauren, that I was telling you about! And- and her mami, Clara.”

The adults start talking, and Lauren looks over at Dinah, trying her best at a smile, but new people really scare her. Dinah just smiles and says. “Hi, Lauren! You’re my friend now, too. Since you’re Walz’s girlfriend, and she smiles when she talks about you. So I like you.”

Lauren plays with Camila’s fingers. “’kay. Want lions.”

“You want to go see the lions?” Camila asks, and when she spots Lauren’s backpack, turns her around so she can show Dinah. “DJ, look! I told you, Lolo likes _The Lion King_ , too. She has a Nala _and_ a Simba, but Nala’s your favourite, right, Lolo?”

“’es,” Lauren nods, “’ove Nala.”

Dinah smiles. “Do you wanna hang out with me and Mila?”

“Want mami,” Lauren points to her mami, “’ove her. She no hit.”

Camila’s eyes widen. “Someone hit you?”

Lauren just shrugs. The lightest punishment she got with the bad people was a few smacks. But Clara and Mike have never hurt her, so she’s happy about that. She’s still scared she might do something wrong, but she’s getting more comfortable with them.

“Clara!” Camila interrupts Milika, “Lauren says someone hit her. You should find them and tell them off.”

Milika looks down at Lauren sympathetically, since Clara had explained that Lauren was adopted from an abusive family. Clara looks over at Camila with a small smile. “Don’t worry, they’re locked away.”

Lauren blinks in confusion. “Huh?”

“Lauren, honey,” Clara laughs, kneeling down to meet her daughter’s eye, “they’re locked up in prison. They can never get to you again.”

“Oh,” Lauren mumbles, before she smiles to herself, because the bad people can’t get her anymore. “Me ‘appy. Lions?”

“Yeah, come on,” Clara holds out her hand, “let’s go see the lions.”

Lauren stares at Clara’s hand in confusion, and isn’t sure what to do, because she’d rather hold Camila’s hand. So, she turns to Camila with a nervous smile. “’amz. Hand?”

Camila grins and takes Lauren’s hand, tugging her over to the lion enclosure. “Me and Dinah already saw the lions, but I want to see them with you.”

Lauren blushes, and lets Camila lead her through the zoo, Dinah and the parents following behind. “’amz? ‘iss?”

“You want a kiss?” Camila asks, and before Lauren can nod in confirmation, Camila has leaned in and pulled her in for a clumsy kiss. The younger girl pulls away, giggling. “I like doing that. I can’t wait to marry you, Lolo.”

“’es,” Lauren replies, because she wants to get married to Camila. She wants to be like Clara and Mike when she’s older, happy and in love, and she knows that Camila is her person. “We marry. When older.”

Camila smiles to herself, and when her friend stops walking, Lauren frowns, because she wants to see the lions _now_. But then Camila nudges her and points in front of them. “Look, Lolo. Lions!”

When Lauren looks up and spots the lions, she’s in awe. They’re so beautiful up close, and it makes Lauren’s heart pound, because she really loves lions. They’re the most beautiful creature in the world, in her head.

She can’t tear her gaze away. She watches them, even though they’re just sleeping on a rock, because she’s only ever seen pictures that the nice lady, the one who was friends with the bad woman at her old house, had shown her. She remembers when the nice lady had told the bad woman to take her to the zoo, and the bad woman had agreed and laughed.

She’d even _smiled_ at Lauren, and it made Lauren think that maybe the bad lady didn’t hate her anymore. But then the nice woman had gone home, and the bad lady had yelled at her and told her she was stupid, and that she’ll never go to the zoo.

Lauren smiles to herself, because the bad lady was wrong. She’s at the zoo with her mami, and she’s really happy, because she loves her mami.

“Mami,” Lauren manages to tear her gaze away from the lions. “Mami, ‘ove you. Tank for- for lions.”

Clara smiles. “I’m happy you liked your surprise, Lauren.”

Lauren lets go of Camila’s hand, gives her a quick kiss, and holds her arms up. “Mami, up.”

Clara picks her up, and Lauren smiles, because while she usually dislikes being touched, she knows that Clara will be gentle. Clara looks after her. “Do you like the one that looks like Nala, Lauren?”

“’es,” Lauren answers, staring at the lion, “Me ‘ike lions.”

They stay at the lion enclosure for hours, so long that Dinah and Milika go for a walk around the zoo and wait for them, since Camila refuses to leave Lauren’s side.

-

“Do you want to go on the slide?”

Lauren looks up at Mike inquisitively, and he points to the tall red slide at the top of the play structure. Lauren, who is frightened of heights, shakes her head.

“Are you sure?” Mike asks. “They’re really fun.”

Lauren nods. “I sure.”

“Okay kiddo.” Mike smiles at her. “Why don’t you go and play in the sandbox over there? It’s empty except for one other kid.”

“’es,” Lauren decides, because she doesn’t like crowded areas. That’s why Mike had brought her to the park earlier. “Eye ‘weam?”

Mike frowns at her. “Your eye hurts?”

“No,” Lauren shakes her head, and points over at the ice cream truck in the corner. “Eye ‘weam.”

“ _Oh_ ,” Mike laughs. “ _Ice cream._ Sure, I’ll get you an ice cream cone in a little while, but you should go and play for a little while first. When it gets busier, we’ll get ice cream and go for a walk.”

Lauren hums, and decides that she likes that plan. She places Nala on the bench next to Mike, and kisses the toy on her head. “Nala, I be back. ‘tay.”

Then, she toddles over to the sandbox, and decides she’s going to try and make a castle. She sits down and starts bunching up sand, making it into a pile. It’s big, but it doesn’t look like the sandcastles she sees at the beach, which makes her a little upset.

“That’s not a very good sandcastle,” says the other girl in the sandbox. Lauren looks up, and meets kind brown eyes for a moment, before she moves her gaze away. The girl is really pretty, though she doesn’t think she’s as pretty as Camila, because Camila is her girlfriend, so she has to be prettier than everyone.

Lauren even thinks that Camila is prettier than _her_. Lauren really likes Camila.

Instead of answering, Lauren pouts, and knocks her sandcastle over, because she tried her best. She gets up, and she’s going to go over to her papi and complain, but the girl stops her. “My mom has a spare bucket you can borrow and make your own castle. She brings it in case I break mine. Or you could just use this one.”

Lauren pauses, because maybe this girl is nice after all. Cautiously, she sits back down, and the girl gets up, running over to a lady on a bench near where her papi and Nala are. A few seconds later, the girl runs back with a blue bucket that’s shaped like a castle.

“Here,” the girl says, passing it to her. “You can use that and make a castle.”

Lauren smiles a little. Turns out the girl _is_ nice. “Tank you. I Lauren.”

“I’m Normani,” the girl introduces herself. “You’re really small. How old are you?”

Lauren frowns to herself, and then holds out five fingers, because that’s what her papi had taught her. Normani stares at her for a moment.

“I’m five, too,” Normani announces. “I thought you were only a baby.”

Lauren frowns even more. Is that a bad thing? “I- I big and ‘mawt.”

“You’re just really tiny,” Normani keeps going. “It’s cute. You’ll grow taller one day.”

Lauren shrugs, and starts building up her castle. She piles loads of sand into the bucket Normani had given her, and then tips it upside down. She pouts when the sand tips out and flops onto the ground.

“Now’ani,” Lauren gets her attention. “It bwoke.”

Normani laughs and shakes her head. “No, silly, you just did it wrong. Watch this.”

Normani piles sand into her red bucket, and quickly turns it so nothing can tip out before she puts the bottom to the ground. She taps it a few times with her spade, and then carefully lifts the bucket up, leaving a sandcastle standing.

Lauren puts more sand into her own bucket, and when it’s full, she looks over at Normani. Normani smiles encouragingly. “Go on, you can do it. You just gotta be real quick.”

Lauren does as Normani had done, tipping it quickly, and then takes Normani’s spade and taps it three times, like the other girl had. Lauren thinks that maybe it’s some kind of magic spell. When she lifts the bucket up, and a sandcastle is there, she squeals happily.

She claps, giggling, pointing at her creation. “’ook!”

“That’s really good,” Normani tells her, and then she grabs a leaf from the side of the sandbox, putting it in one of the turrets. “There, you’ve got a flag now, too.”

Lauren claps again, and then stands up, scurrying over to Mike. “Papi, ‘ook!”

Mike stands up, and Lauren grabs Nala, because she has to show Nala her castle, too. She presents it to him with a big grin, and Mike immediately takes a picture of her with it. Then, Lauren points at Normani.

“She- she ‘elp,” Lauren tells him. “She show.”

Mike smiles at her. “I’m glad you made a little friend, Lauren.”

“’es, fwend.” Lauren confirms. “Now’ani fwend.”

“Yeah, we’re friends,” Normani says with a grin, “you can call me Mani, by the way.”

“’es, ‘ani,” Lauren smiles to herself, before she holds out her stuffed lion, “dis Nala. You ‘ook, no touch.”

Normani smiles. “That’s really cool, Lauren. Do you go to school yet?”

“No,” Mike answers for her. “We might enrol her in school next year. We’re working with her now, teaching her things so she’s on everyone else’s level. We don’t want her to be behind.”

Normani looks from Lauren to Mike. “Are you her dad?”

“Yeah,” Mike says, “I am.”

Lauren smiles to herself. “’ike papi. C’ara mami. Dey save from baddies.”

Normani points over to the swing set. “You wanna play on the swings? I’m learning how to do it by myself, so my mommy doesn’t have to push me anymore.”

“’kay,” Lauren nods, and she follows Mike back over to the bench so she can set Nala back down carefully. Then, she follows Normani to the swings, and watches how Normani manages to swing herself.

Lauren tries, but her little legs don’t push her too far, so Normani jumps down and pushes her as high as she can. Lauren giggles as her new friend says things like “Look, you’re flying!”

When the park starts to get busier, and Lauren has to leave, she waves goodbye to her new friend with a smile on her face, and decides that she’d like to have Camila meet Normani.

Because Camila had said that your girlfriend needed your friend’s approval, and Normani is her friend, so she finally has someone for Camila to meet.


End file.
